So I have another blog, one I started before the whole getting knocked up thing happened. My other, neglected, blog is Dealing with Dillholes and is all about the really annoying things people do. Alas, the joy of pregnancy has rendered me...zen. I have a little more patience these days and I find that while I still get irritated, I tend to forget it much quicker ('Baby Brain' as a feature not a problem? hmm). Even the obnoxious things people do and say when encountering a pregnant woman, don't seem to bug me quite as much. That being said, I think its fair to say that the following is the opinion of a fairly unbiased, anti-shit stirring, rational woman.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/vaccines
I watched the PBS Frontline: Vaccine Wars episode and it sort of made me want to beat my head against the wall. Coincidentally, Micha and I had just discussed his concern over vaccinations. I told him that I had heard of parents opting for an alternative vaccination schedule and I would be happy to look into it. Needless to say I was enthused about the timing of this particular episode but when I sat down to actually watch it, I was instantly disappointed. The opening scene of the video is a cesarean birth. What does that have to do with vaccinations? Nothing except that the infant would be cut from his mothers womb only to wisked off to be injected with a vaccination for Hepatitis B. Hepatitis B? How does an infant only hours old contract Hep B, if the mother hasn't tested positive? And what else is in that vaccination? Maybe a little mercury? The very reason that I, as a pregnant woman, am told to avoid my beloved sushi? Am I taking crazy pills does anyone else think this is ridiculous?
Throughout the entire program they interviewed medical experts on how miraculous and wonderful vaccinations are. We don't see polio any more. Hurray! Babies are protected from Measles. Yipee! And who was interviewed from the opposing view? Jenny McCarthy (who they pointed out, is a former Playboy Playmate). I like Jenny. I think she has been a terrific spokesperson and she seems like a wonderful parent, but she isn't exactly a medical expert. Surely the program will show interviews with Dr. Sears, Dr. Cave, Dr. Bock or Dr. Miller. Not a single one. They were however; quick to point out that every opposing view they were presenting was that of a person not related in any way to the medical profession.
Another point of irritation is the notion that all parents who choose not to vaccinate their children or decide on an alternate vax schedule, are getting their information from YouTube. Admittedly, there is a ton of misinformation on the web about everything. Do we, as educated, intelligent, rational parents, make decisions about the health and well-being of our children so lightly as to base our decisions on a video posted on YouTube? To suggest such a thing is an insult. No, I did not go to Harvard Medical School for 8 years or intern at Johns Hopkins but it doesn't take a degree in medicine to take a proactive part in the health of our kids. Why is it irrational to wonder whether or not it is safe to inject our infants with mercury and aluminum? If parents are reporting changes in their children, who are later diagnosed with autism after having received a vaccination, why shouldn't we question the safety of the ingredients, timing and number of vaccines that our children receive? I try not to watch a great deal of television but I am sure to see at least one commercial regarding a class action lawsuit against a pharmaceutical company during the course of a day. Is it any wonder we have started to question conventional western medicine? And why can't I have an open discourse with my practitioner rather than an 30 second "Hi. Take this. See you in two weeks."? Is it really that crazy to believe that our bodies need to build up immunities to some diseases naturally in order to have a strong and healthy immune system? Or to believe that something natural is less risky and better for our bodies than something synthetic? That prevention is far better 'medicine' than waiting for a prescription?
I do not believe that it is 'good medicine' to discount years of Naturopathic and Eastern medicine for more profit generating Western medical practices. It just makes sense, to me, that changing my lifestyle or incorporating remedies from nature are safer than chemicals that my body does not recognize. For example, I am particularly sensitive to codeine, found commonly in prescription cold and pain medicines. It makes me vomit, a lot. If I have a cold, I take thyme, an herb which we use to cook with all the time. Most doctors would roll their eyes at this but it works, its safe and I have no adverse side affects or reactions. I also do not believe that East and West are mutually exclusive of one another. Clearly, there are times when standard western practices are more effective. Vaccines are good. They do protect our children from terrible life threatening illnesses; however the questions that the Vaccine Wars failed to address are: Are we giving children too many vaccinations, too early in life and why do vaccines contain things like mercury and aluminum? Those of us who watched hoping to gain more insight are simply left with more questions.
I must respectfully disagree, vaccines are not good, they are poison and they are dangerous. Vaccine do not provide immunity. They have never rid us of any terrible disease. Not only that, they have brought about a huge increase in autoimmune disease, but this works out great for the pharmaceutical companies, they have purchasers for their mass array of expensive drugs that also do more harm than good.
ReplyDeletehttp://vaccinerights.com/pdf/DispellingVaccinationMythsx.pdf
"Dr. Bernard Greenberg, medical statistics professor (and later Dean of the Sch of Pub Hlth) of UNC testified before Congress in 1961 that polio, which declined prior to the introduction of the first polio vaccine..., *increased* following the introduction of the vaccine, for 2 years, and authorities deliberately manipulated the statistics to cover that up--i.e., the polio vaccine was a complete disaster.
Entire countries refused it, and saw declines as well as those that did. Vaccine policy has been built upon lies, and medical "authorities" continue to point to the polio lies as the basis for today's vaccine policy. Studies in 3 countries (US, UK, Australia) showed that polio paralysis occurred 4x *more often* in vaccinated people (D and T vaccines, pre-polio vaccine), and in the vaccinated limb. So not only did the polio vaccine NOT help polio, polio epidemics were caused by the polio vaccine."
Standard western medicine is only useful in emergencies i.e broken bones, car crashes. Homeopathic medicine is much more useful for maintaining health and is much cheaper than standard medical care, but again, if you can't make money off of it then most doctors want nothing to do with it.
I didn't get to watch Vaccine Wars, we had a melodramatic meltdown that night, from what I have heard from everyone, I don't know if I will even waste my time watching it. They don't want to answer the crucial questions you asked because it is not in the pharmaceutical companies best interest to do so. The FDA, CDC, and NIH don't want to look like fools so they sweep it under the rug and pretend that vaccines are completely safe. Top level employees of the FDA, CDC, and NIH routinely get their start at major pharmaceutical companies. Vaccines have become a way to control population. The world powers that be injected women in the Philippines with Hcg laced tetanus shots. The women's bodies developed antibodies to Hcg and are not able to carry a pregnancy to full term, those women will never have children. Bill Gates said in a TED speech, with vaccines and really good health care we should be able to decrease the population. It is just me or should vaccines and really good health care increase the population?
I have two boys that are vaccine damaged. They kept telling me that it couldn't possibly be the vaccine that was causing all of our problems. One Hib in my four month old was all it took for the exact same symptoms to appear. Vaccines are dangerous and they are harming children at alarming rates. When will we wake up and see what we are doing?